Last weekend was the London MCM Expo where Sweatdrop Studios released “Telling Tales“, our newest anthology. It’s a little late I know. It’s taken me a week to recover from the Expo.

The gorgeous front cover was created by my better half, Faye Yong, who also has a 40 page comic adaptation of the Grimm Brother’s ‘The Three Feathers’ which I had the privilege of scripting for her. That was a really fun piece to do!

Press Release

Sweatdrop Studios presents you with a collection of tales adapted from stories well-loved and time-tested. Contained within these pages you’ll find fables from near and far; some will shock, some will surprise and some will make you smile. Sweatdrop’s artists have scoured the globe for stories that have inspired and touched them in some way, and we hope that they’ll do the same for you.

Magic, greed, love, friendship, loss and punishment – fairytales have always encompassed a haunting mix of the fantastical and macabre. This anthology, perfect for bed-time reading, will capture all of that and more in Sweatdrop’s expected variety of styles and approaches; and the group are thrilled to be joined in this special book by guest creator Svetlana Chmakova (NightSchool/Dramacon).

Recently, I’ve found myself thinking back fondly of my time reading ‘The Black Magician‘ trilogy and wanting to revisit the world. That rarely happens with books for me. I would say that this is probably the same reason the Harry Potter titles were so popular. It’s the world that they set which we miss, more so than the characters at times. Saying that, characters in the Black Magician are far more memorable to me.

So imagine my surprise this morning when I decided to do a little digging and discovered that there is a Prequel to the trilogy and a further planned Sequel trilogy that follows on years later from the original, bringing back a few of the lead characters! The first book due for release in early May.

I nearly squealed like a girl with joy :) Bless you Trudi Canavan! I have some unused book vouchers from my last birthday which will go towards picking these up soon.

In other news, there had been a couple more reviews pop up for ‘Talking to Strangers‘ -

The stories welcome second readings, and the darker tone here works very well with the short story medium. A great effort by the artists and author alike, with Flowers and Citrine’s confident work on Malignant feeling like particular high points. – Amanda Young, NEO Magazine
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#Note – The following (full) review contains spoilers. For people who’ve read the book, please click through to the full version. It’s like having a discussion with a friend at a book club.

Talking to Strangers is an impressive read. It’s a good variety of stories that are very well told and supported by great art. With the possible exception of “Hero” nothing herein is depressing. The stories are frightening, sad, and speak to our core beliefs and fears, but they also carry a message of struggling to live and realizing how precious life is (and how horrible some, including ourselves, can make it). It’s true such stories may not be for everyone, but I can highly recommend it as a powerful read you wont soon forget. – Sheena McNeil, Sequential Tart
# read more

Available to buy from Sweatdrop Studios and yes, we do ship worldwide and accept Credit/Debit cards online. Thanks for dropping by.

You take care now!

I wanted to sum up the event, but so much had happened that I feel a little overwhelmed every time I try to put it all into words. Let me just run through the highlights.

London Expo, quite honestly, Rocked! I always look forward to this event, but this year more so, as it marked the release of my new book, Talking To Strangers, which is now available to buy online.

The Artists Vs. Writers showdown was fantastic fun, with us Writers coming out on top, surprisingly by beating the Artist’s at Pictionary, no less! We received equal points for the word game Taboo, mind you. I hope they do it again next year. Not sure they’d invite the same teams again, but I’ll definitely be around to watch it! Quick Edit: Nana took some photos of the Showdown here.

Didn’t really buy much this year. Picked up a copy of Morris The Mankiest Monster by Sarah McIntyre, because we like her a lot and her artwork is always worth owning! Got a copy of Derek the Sheep signed by Gary Northfield, a very nice guy with a wonderful sense of humour. It shows in his work. From the Sweatdrop table, I grabbed Selina’s latest titles, ‘Sunny’s Field’ and ‘Bellringers 2′ (not yet available online, but hey, did you know she launched a new webcomic? Go check it out!)

Finally got round to picking up a copy of Nana’s new book, Twelfth Night (did I ever get round to mentioning that Faye’s book, The Merchant of Venice, was out too? … I didn’t?!? *shock-horror* I should be shot!!).

Caught up with Paul and wrangled a signature out of him on a couple of artbooks. Lovely work, as always! How I wish he’d release a new comic both written and illustrated by him. It’s been too long dude!! … Quizzed Kate with regards to when her collected book, The Spider Moon, will be officially released. It’s fairly soon, so keep an eye out. It will be in HARDCOVER!! I’m quite excited about that.

What else? … Oh, never had this happen to me before – Had a gentleman recognise my name off my badge, turned out to be a Clarence Principle fan and seemed genuinely excited to learn that I had a new book out. Nice guy, called Ennis I believe? Gosh, hope I got your name right dude! I suck at remembering names.

I’ve had people walk up to the Sweatdrop table many times to tell me how much they enjoyed Clarence before, but those were people who actually came looking for me. This time round, it’s been a varied mix of people returning the next day after reading the new book to tell me how much they loved it! Wasn’t expecting feedback that soon. Great feeling, that.

Due to carrying a lot of books to the event, I wasn’t able to bring my camera along. So instead, here are some photos from Joanna’s camera that both her and I took. Also, have a link to Flickr with a collection of everyone else’s photos!

A great big Thank You goes out to all the artist’s involved and to those who helped with the DTP side of things. But especially to my girl Faye, for her support and hard work throughout the project. What follows is a straight cut and paste of a prepared press release.

PR: A girl trapped in a box, a boy chained to a rock and a friendship between a child and a flower. These are just a few of the themes that storyteller Fehed Said explores in this collection. Joining Fehed Said, the acclaimed writer behind SLG’s Clarence Principle, and Sonia Leong, the award winning artist behind SMH’s Romeo & Juliet is a sterling lineup of the UK’s best new talent. Featuring artwork from Nana Li, Wing Yun Man, Chloe Citrine and Faye Yong.

“It was such a varied mix of stories” says Said. “When I was trying to come up with the title for the book, I wanted to find a connection between them all. Evidently, the critical moments in each piece came up as the protagonist’s talked with strangers.”

Nana Li was the artist for ‘Box’, and sums up that story as: “It’s a short and dark story, but I think the ending will leave a tingling sensation in the spine.” The same could certainly be said about the reading experience of this title. From the morbid fairy-tale style ‘Malignant’ and the sweetness of ‘Flowers’; this anthology showcases a variety in storytelling and artistic talent.

Talking To Strangers is due for release on 24th October 2009 at the London MCM Expo and available to buy online from the Sweatdrop Studios website.

Dear Blog, sorry for neglecting you, but I have been busy/lazy when it came to the net lately. No promises on getting back on track with updating you, but I think there’ll be things worth saying soon enough.

I showed my sister some Maximum the Hormone videos last night, and we shared a common moment for an urge… no, a need to mosh to the music. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to tour anywhere outside of Japan at the moment. So I guess I’m just going to have to go to Japan then to see them live :P

Quick Summary of To Do’s -

• Follow up on ‘Talking to Strangers’ anth (read ‘poke people lots’)
• Finish Editing ‘Clarence’ short film by Aug ’08
• Complete ’184′ pitch by Dec ’08
• Write up ‘Second Sky’ pitch by Jan ’09

Had a hectic film shoot weekend (some behind the scenes pic’s posted here). It was very educational to say the least. I was cursing myself for taking on such a huge project when things didn’t go smoothly during those 2 (and a half) days, but now that the hard part is over, I find myself thinking “What should I shoot next summer?”.

I figured I’m going to write something about the film once it’s done, so I may as well do an in depth post once that’s ready to go live, save me blabbering twice about it.

In Other News -

Hmm, let’s see… Oh, FreakAngels just got a little more interesting. It’s free to read, so you really have no excuse not to be following it. I ran into Paul at the DFC launch and we had a nice catch-up. Apparently this comic is taking up a lot of his time, and it really shows why. He’s gone all out on it. Cool stuff. It’s still weird seeing London submerged in water :)

Sweatdrop Podcast was down for a month due to ODEO’s transition to their new website. It’s up and running again and Episode #13 is now live. Should hopefully have #14 with you by Monday! I just need to finish editing it this weekend.

More up and coming Shakespeare Manga from SelfMadeHero, and Emma announced her involvement with the title “Much Ado About Nothing” and showcased some concept colour art on her site. I must say, that when she showed me the characters in sketch form, I was already sold. It looks like it’s going to be a hoot! There’ll be a plethora of titles coming soon but I can’t really announce any until the artists themselves make them public. You are SO shunned!!

And finally, was invited out to see Hancock tonight. I know that’s not technically news worthy, but I’ve been looking forward to seeing this film for a while, so I’m a little excited XD At least I didn’t do a write up about my 6th viewing of ‘Brick’ and how I really enjoyed listening to Clute and Edwards discussion on their “Out of the Past” podcast, where they broke down every element of the story and the filming of it to show me things I hadn’t even considered before. Like how the introduction scene is so intricately delicious with it’s subtle muted colours and the similar details between the first scene of when Brendan is kneeling down near… woah woah, almost fell into that one!

Okay, end transmission!

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one’s own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane.

I cannot say with certainty which of my motives are the strongest, but I know which of them deserve to be followed. And looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally.

# George Orwell – Why I Write

I was helping my sister today with her Uni essay and read this passage from Orwell’s book ‘Why I Write’. It stuck with me all day and I felt like sharing it.

I watched “Paprika” last night, directed by Satoshi Kon. I was surprised to learn that it’s actually based on a novel that was adapted to a screenplay. I can’t quite picture it as a novel after watching that. I can, however, see why Satoshi directed this film, as it reminded me a lot of his “Paranoia Agent” series which he wrote and directed himself.

It’s a visually stunning piece, but I still think “Perfect Blue” and “Tokyo Godfathers” are his best work, but Paprika certainly is a joy to the senses both in visuals and sound. After the movie ended, I had to find the soundtrack on iTunes. It’s funky :)

Paprika: Don’t you think dreams and the Internet are similar? They are both areas where the repressed conscious mind vents.

I’m also currently reading “Welcome to the NHK“. It’s rather good. I ordered volumes 1 and 2 nearly 3 weeks ago and volume one arrived the day before yesterday. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the book, but I found it a weird coincidence that I finished writing my ‘Static’ short story, which is about a man suffering from agoraphobia, and the lead character in NHK is a recluse with similar tendencies. I should have ordered this earlier XD Would’ve been a good reference source.

Think I’ll go finish reading it in bed.